Peking Man

Peking Man is the name for Homo erectus fossils found at Zhoukoudian near Beijing, China. The fossils date to roughly 770,000–230,000 years ago and document ancient human life in East Asia.

Zhoukoudian: A fossil-bearing cave complex near Beijing that preserves evidence of ancient human occupation. Its cave deposits yielded the fossils collectively known as Peking Man.
Homo erectus: An extinct human species that lived across Africa and Eurasia for more than a million years. Peking Man is a regional fossil assemblage usually assigned to this species.
Lithic technology: The manufacture and use of stone tools by humans and their ancestors. Stone artifacts at Zhoukoudian associate toolmaking with the fossil-bearing occupations.
Out of Africa theory: The model that modern humans originated in Africa and later spread across the world. Peking Man once figured in debates over whether modern humans evolved independently in Asia.
Pei Wenzhong: A Chinese archaeologist and paleontologist who excavated at Zhoukoudian and identified a major Homo erectus skullcap in 1929. His 1929 discovery established the importance of the Zhoukoudian finds.
Paleoanthropology: The study of human evolution through fossils, archaeological evidence, and related scientific methods. Peking Man became a foundational subject in the study of human evolution.
Acheulean: A stone-tool tradition known especially for large bifacial handaxes and cleavers. Its characteristic handaxes are unlike the small, simple tools prominent at Zhoukoudian.
Multiregional hypothesis: A model proposing that regional human populations evolved into modern humans while exchanging genes across regions. The fossils were used to argue for long-term human continuity in East Asia.
Davidson Black: A Canadian anatomist who studied Zhoukoudian fossils and named Sinanthropus pekinensis in 1927. His classification gave the fossils their early scientific name.
Pleistocene: A geological epoch from about 2.58 million to 11,700 years ago, marked by repeated ice ages. The fossils span part of this epoch’s changing climates and environments.

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